Work Text:
This May Hurt a Little
by Twilight
‘Whatever feelings I had for Maya in the past,’ Blair remembered saying earlier in the day. ‘They're just that. They're in the past.’
Jim hadn’t believed him and pointed out that he didn’t think that Blair believed it either.
Now, the sun had set.
He had been abducted at gunpoint…twice. Threatened with blow torches and tided up in the hull of a boat.
The EMT dabbed at the trickling blood that welled from the wound on his forehead, but Blair was more focused on Maya speaking with her uncle just beyond the ambulance.
A bandage was pressed to his head and then the man patted his shoulder. “Take something for the headache and rest. You should feel better tomorrow.”
He nodded, not bothering to look at the EMT. He scooted down off the gurney and down over the bumper to stand a few feet from her.
The red and blue strobe lights of the cruiser cast its colors over her face as she looked down and then she looked toward him and all those old feelings came rushing back.
She smiled, tucking a stray hair behind her delicate ear and he moved forward without thought. He stood next to her and her uncle moved off to speak with Jim.
“So, I guess I’ll go to jail now.”
“No. No, you're not going to go to jail,” he wanted to reassure her still. Even after everything. “The captain thinks that they're going to deport you and, uh...and bar you from ever coming back.”
Her face fell and as she looked down again, he thought that maybe she had tears in her eyes. “So, we'll never see each other again?”
Would they? Was he willing to give her a second chance? Would she do the same?
“Oh, I don't know about that,” he finally said, taking her into his arms and kissing her goodbye.
Too much had happened.
He kissed her once more and then watched her walk out of his life.
“You okay, Chief?” Jim stood beside him, lending silent support.
He turned from his past. There was nothing for him there, “Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll be all right.” And he knew that he would be… “It's just that...it hurts a little.”
He looked toward his friend, squinting up, feeling a steady pounding behind his right eye.
He was ready for a hot shower and his soft bed.
Ready for the easy banter between them, and in true Jim fashion his friend told him, “You'll get over it.”
They laughed over Gustavo Alcante’s escape and the look on Simon’s face when the real Fed’s showed up and then Jim led him back to the truck.
“How about Chinese, Chief?”
He buckled in and held on as Jim drove away. “We had Chinese for breakfast,” he reminded.
“Breakfast, lunch, dinner…Chinese hits the spot anytime…besides, they gypped me outta my fortune. How will I ever learn Chinese without my word of the day?”
“Don’t forget the lucky numbers, man…I might just play the lotto tonight.”
“Feeling lucky, Chief?” Jim merged onto the highway and accelerated toward home.
The night lights streaked by as Blair thought about the day, the stirred emotions, the guilt, the regrets, and the decision he had made. “Yeah, Jim…I feel…fortunate.”
China Palace passed in a blur, but Blair didn’t say anything…Jim always seemed to know what Blair needed.
People talk about second chances, but in Blair’s experience, they hardly ever work out.
The End